Digital marketing has made building a business, from the bottom, very convenient. With most consumers preferring to use online shopping for their needs, there is no doubt that advertising a product or a brand is more attainable than ever. With the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, many enterprises and corporations have prospered. However, can the same be said when marketing luxury brands?
It’s much easier for simple e-commerce and small businesses on these platforms to reach their target audience. Rising brands push their products in the viewing sight of potential buyers through localized ad targeting and sponsored posts. However, the same rules and strategies might not apply to marketing a luxury brand or at the very least, may not work as effectively.
Social Media Strategies
The main dilemma is simple. In contrast to run-of-the-mill enterprises, luxury brands have to maintain an exclusive, hard-to-reach, and sophisticated image through social media management. This is why most luxury brands tend to be traditional through using print and display advertising. However, those methods don’t have great customer returns as they used to. Social media is the modern way for luxury brands to reach their audience to keep up with the times but also thrive in it.
Here are six techniques that luxury brands can use to effectively transition into social media marketing:
- Make a Splash With Visual Impact
Social media is an inherently visual platform. Most content that thrives on these sites utilizes aesthetics and well-designed graphics to connect with their audience through evoking appropriate emotions and telling a story.
In the case of luxury brands, it is best to use professionally photographed images that maintain an exclusive, boutique-like feeling when browsing through the content. Building up an aspirational and expensive image is the main goal for luxury social media marketing.
A great example of this is the influence of the luxury brand, Chanel, on Pinterest. Because of their highly marketable visual and aesthetic promotional images, Chanel has become one of the most pinned brands on the site. Furthermore, this is even more impressive as the brand doesn’t even have an account on Pinterest.
Another company that does this well is Watchfinder. Using their high-quality images, the brand evokes a sense of elegance in their marketing, as well as a consistent theme throughout their Facebook timeline. This excellently makes up for that boutique or luxury store component by making the simple act of scrolling feel exclusive.
- Maximize the Desire for Status
As mentioned earlier, the main pull of luxury brands is their aspirational and exclusive image. With that, people crave these popular brands to symbolize their status. One of the reasons people express themselves on social media is to put themselves out there and display the parts of their life that they want other people to see.
Take full advantage of this. When marketing a luxury brand on social media, create content that will make the person seem elegant, smart, or stylish to their friends. Focus on long-form visual and aspirational posts that will take advantage of SEO traffic.
- Fully Utilize Income Targeting
Because of their visual nature, Pinterest and Instagram are great platforms to use for marketing your brand. However, do not rule out more mainstream platforms like Facebook.
One of the advantages of Facebook is that their audience is predominantly older than those in more young and trendy sites. Generally, this means that audiences that use Facebook are more financially stable and are more likely to seek out these types of brands.
With the use of audience demographic data from Facebook, the brand can choose to market in areas with much higher household incomes. Depending on the price range of the products and services offered by your company, they can choose to specifically market in the top percentage bracket of the Canadian postal codes.
- Market Exclusivity
As mentioned earlier, the main appeal of luxury goods is their exclusivity. Whether it be through the scarcity of the product or the rarity of a limited-edition luxury item, this kind of exclusivity is crucial to maintain when it comes to these sorts of brands. While these items pride themselves on being expensive and having excellent quality, all of those advantages would be nothing if everyone can get the same item regardless of status.
It would be common to think that marketing on the Internet, where there are millions of brands vying for a consumer’s attention, would take away that very quality. However, this is not true.
Rather than focusing on the wide distribution of products that online consumerism is known for, it is best for luxury brands to focus on the wider distribution of content that inspires the audiences to avail of these luxury goods. For example, publishing content, which ultimately leads a consumer to the brand’s website will not only bring traffic to your luxury brand’s main site but will also be sharable and aspirational for the audiences.
Using methods such as having private-member groups, digital loyalty perks, and concierge services for long-time patrons are also great ways to maintain this.
- Promote the Luxury Experience
Online and Offline components of a luxury brand should work like a well-oiled machine. Focusing on promoting the in-store luxury experience helps mesh these two components together.
For example, promoting limited events on offline stores online is a great way to gain traction. In turn, whether prompted or not, these people guided by the online activities will create and post the content mentioning their experience with the brand and the actual products themselves.
This boosts the brand’s online traffic as well as promotes good Search Engine Optimization. You can also benefit from hiring search engine marketing consultants so you can bring your luxury brand’s digital marketing to the next level.
- Invest in Around-the-Clock Customer Service
An important part of online marketing and business is its accessibility. The benefits of the internet’s connectivity are what draw the modern consumer to online shopping as it is much faster and less tedious than its alternatives. This is the reason why it is important to invest in customer service.
Utilizing fully automated AI and chatbots for customer support is a great way to ensure that potential patrons will be accommodated on time. Part of the luxury brand experience is the higher quality of service that is provided. The quality of service should be on par with the image, the status, and the quality of the brand itself.
Online Social Media Marketing, when done effectively, can be an excellent goldmine for luxury brands to transition to the online space and keep up with the times. While it gives the opposite impression, social media can promote a luxury brand and all its advantages without sacrificing that sense of exclusivity, which is vital for its success. With proper technique and good social media management, these internet marketing strategy can not only grow a luxury brand’s online presence and influence but can also revitalize offline luxury stores.